Fires and hydrology of south eastern Australian mixed ... · › Our project “ Fires and hydrology of south eastern Australian mixed-species forests” › History and nature fire

Fires and hydrology of south eastern Australian mixed-species forests

ENSY 1002 | 2012 TARRYN TURNBULL | RESEARCH FELLOW ECOPHYSIOLOGY

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

› Our project “Fires and hydrology of south eastern Australian mixed-species forests”

› History and nature fire in vegetated catchments

› Our approach to quantifying vegetation water use

› What’s been done to date

› What’s still to be done

› What questions are we answering

› Deliverables at the end of the project

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PROJECT OUTLINE

› Project 4: Fires and hydrology of south-eastern Australian mixed species forests - Staff: Tarryn Turnbull & Michael Kemp (The University of Sydney) - Collaborators: Tom Buckley (Sonoma State University)

- PhD Students: Jessica Heath (The University of Sydney)

› Project Outline: - The amount of water transpired by vegetation is tightly coupled to water yield (run-off)

from forested sub-catchments;

- There are a few models that predict overstorey water use for established forests typical of the Northern Hemisphere (i.e. with dominant trees being deciduous broadleaved species, or evergreen conifers);

- This project aims to develop these existing models further so we can predict the water used by eucalypt forests regenerating after fire – paying particular attention to those eucalypts that regenerate via sprouting

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HISTORY AND NATURE FIRE IN VEGETATED CATCHMENTS

› Transpiration is the greatest contributor of the outputs. So, more so than anything else, the water balance of our forested catchments is dominated by tree water use.

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DETERMINANTS OF WATER YIELD

Precipitation

Transpiration

Soil evaporation

Runoff

Interception


› Previous research shows that eucalypt forests regenerating after a fire use more water than the original unburnt forest

› Leaves are the site of most water loss from a tree, and the total leaf area carried by a tree varies seasonally, annually and as the tree ages

› Water travels from roots to leaves via a wood tissue type called ‘sapwood’

› Leaf structure and physiology in regenerating leaves is different to that of the adult leaves of an unburnt forest

› We study all these aspects of tree structure and physiology to assess the potential for different species of eucalypts to transpire water as they regenerate after a fire

› Today we’ll discuss what determines differences in water yield before and after fire in tall open eucalypt forests and mixed species eucalypt forests

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TREES FIRE AND WATER YIELD


› Melbourne water catchments are mostly forested: - Half of Melbourne’s catchment is a tall open forest of Eucalyptus regnans and

the other half is mixed species open forest of up to eight different eucalypts comprising the overstorey

› Similarly the majority of Canberra’s catchment is a tall open forest of E. delegatensis and the other half is mixed species open forest

› Sydney’s catchment is a little different, with only 37% covered with native vegetation. This vegetation is diverse too – made up of tall open forests, rainforest and heathlands to name a few.

› Plants have different requirements for water, and respond differently to fire – so forest type affects water yield and susceptibility of yield to fire

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FORESTED CATCHMENTS IN SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA


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TYPICAL TALL OPEN FOREST


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TYPICAL MIXED SPECIES FOREST


› The contribution of each forest type (tall open and mixed species forests) to catchment yield is unequal

› 80% of the yield for Melbourne’s catchment originates from the tall open E. regnans forests (which only comprise 50% of the catchment estate)

› This results predominately from geography – E. regnans forests grow on well draining soils in the areas that receive higher rainfall

› Not surprisingly then, most research into impact of forest type on water yield concerns these forests

› In these forests water yield is strongly leveraged to vegetation water-use, a 5% increase in forest water use = 20% reduction in streamflow!

› Only recently have we began to study how other eucalypt forests use water before and after a fire

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FOREST TYPE IMPACTS UPON WATER YIELD


› The tall open E. regnans forests characterising half of Melbourne’s water catchment are particularly vulnerable to decreased catchment yield after a fire

› Three decades after a stand-replacing fire, catchment yields remain 6 mm y-1 less for every 1% of the catchment estate that was burnt (Kuczera 1987)

› The sustained decreased yield arises from increased transpiration of the regenerating forest (Vertessy et al. 1995)

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FROM THE LITERATURE


• Sap velocity is conserved with tree age for E. regnans (Dunn and Connor 1993) so increased transpiration rates result from increased stand sapwood area of the heavily stocked regenerating forest (still 4000 stems ha at 7 yo, one every 1.5 m)

• Stand sapwood area steadily declines with forest age (7 m2 ha-1 for a 50 yo forest to 4 m2 ha-1 for a ‘mature’ forest > 100 yo, Dunn and Connor 1993)

• As does leaf area index from 4 in a 10 yo forest to 1 for a ‘mature’ forest > 100 yo (Vertessy et al. 2001)

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FROM THE LITERATURE

OUR APPROACH TO QUANTIFYING VEGETATION WATER USE

› Response of E. regnans forests were well represented in the literature

› The other major forest types of our forested catchments were not: - The E. delegatensis and E. pauciflora forests at the headwaters of the Murray

River catchment

- The mixed species eucalypt forests at the foothills of all tall open forests in SE Australia

› The shortened growing season of the headwater forests and resprouting physiology of mixed species forests render them both unlikely to follow the E. regnans-type pattern of catchment yield after fire

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THE LITERATURE – WHAT WAS MISSING?


› We’ve been working in the forests of SE Australia for the last 7 years to quantify the effect of fire on catchment yields in both E. delegatensis and E. pauciflora monospecific forests that were burnt in 2003 and also mixed species eucalypt forests that were burnt in 2009 (HIGHFIRE, BCRC)

› Quantify and model tree water use in mixed species forests of SE Australia as the forests regenerate after a fire - Tree water use continually measured via heat ratio method

- This combined with inventory of stems per hectare, stem size and the relationship between sap-conducting wood and stem size, and knowledge of wood characteristics, can enable us to quantify stand-level vegetation water use

› Meteorological drivers of tree water use (soil moisture, light and vapour pressure deficit) are also continuously recorded on-site

› Structural components are also measured periodically via targeted campaigns: - canopy leaf area, leaf type and patterns of distribution, stomatal physiology, venation

patterns, leaf chemistry and leaf gas exchange

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MIXED SPECIES FORESTS – PROJECT AIMS


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BURNT V UNBURNT E. delegatensis FOREST


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ACCESSING THE 70 M TALL CANOPY E. delegatensis


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INSTALLING SAPFLOW SENSORS IN E. pauciflora


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REGENERATING MIXED SPECIES FORESTS


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LEAF WATER RELATIONS IN MIXED SPECIES FORESTS


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ACCESSING THE CANOPY IN MIXED SPECIES FORESTS


› The flow of water through soil, into a plant and out of it’s leaves is controlled by the environment within the soil, the structure of wood and leaves, and the atmosphere around the tree crown - Water moves from wet to dry

- Influenced by soil moisture content and water holding capacity

- Air temperature and relative humidity i.e. how dry the air is

- Wind

- Light intensity/brightness…

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WEATHER AND SOIL WATER


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A TYPICAL MICRO-METEOROLOGY STATION


› Water moves through the sapwood of older trees at the same rate as through the sapwood of seedlings

› Forest structure influences the amount of water such that older forests transpire less than younger forests

› Younger forests have a greater stocking of trees

› Younger forests also have a greater amount of sapwood

› and a greater leaf area index (m2 leaf per m2 ground)

› Recently burnt eucalypt forests have juvenile leaves and if regenerating from seed, a greater proportion of wood as sapwood

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FOREST STRUCTURE AND TRANSPIRATION


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SAPWOOD AREA DISTRIBUTION & LEAF AREA INDEX


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HRM SAPFLOW SENSORS


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SOIL WATER AND WITHIN-CANOPY ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS


› The rate at which water flows from the soil to the atmosphere via a plant is influenced by the demand for water by the canopy and resistances to water movement within the sapwood and leaves

› The two major resistances are found in the leaf - Leaf pores (stomata)

- Layer of still air directly adjacent to leaf surface (boundary layer)

› Leaf water status, porosity of the leaf surface, physiology of stomatal opening and shutting, and structure and anatomy of leaves are all variables we study in order to model tree water use

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TREE STRUCTURE AND LEAF ANATOMY


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STOMATA CAN BE PHYSICALLY IMPAIRED AGAINST WATER LOSS

England, J.R., Attiwill, P.M., 2006. Changes in leaf morphology and anatomy with tree age and height in the broadleaved evergreen species, Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell. Trees – Structure and Function 20, 79–90.


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DIFFUSION OF WATER BETWEEN VEINS AND STOMATA

Brodribb TJ, Field TS and Jordan GJ PLANT PHYSIOL 2007, Vol. 144, pp. 1890–1898

OUR RESULTS - WHAT’S BEEN DONE TO DATE

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PHYSIOLOGY OF RESPROUTING EUCALYPTS CANOPY & LEAF CHARACTERISTICS

2010

2011

2012

E. radiata E. dives E. mannifera


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CANOPY AND LEAF CHARACTERISTICS: SPECIES VARIATION IN LEAF AREA

E. radiata E. dives E. mannifera


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LEAF WATER RELATIONS: GRADIENTS FOR WATER MOVEMENT (WATER MOVES FROM LESS NEGATIVE TO MORE NEGATIVE PRESSURE), DIURNAL PATTERNS IN LEAF WATER POTENTIAL

2010

2011

2012

E. radiata E. dives


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LEAF WATER RELATIONS - STOMATA

2010 2011 2012


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LEAF PHYSIOLOGY – WATER-USE EFFICIENCY

2010 2011 2012

WHAT’S STILL TO BE DONE?

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CALCULATING STAND WATER USE FOR 18-MONTHS DATA

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Alpine Ash (Tree 82; 52cm)

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E. delagatensis

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Wallaces Hut Raspberry Hill

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R2 = 0.41, P < 0.01

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Tree water use (L day-1) Stems ha-1 Sapwood area (cm2)

DBH (cm)


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PARTITIONING WATER USE AMONGST TRANSPIRATION AND REFILLING

2011 Buckley, Turnbull Pfautsch & Adams. Nocturnal water loss in mature subalpine Eucalyptus delegatensis tall open forests and adjacent E. pauciflora woodlands ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 1(3) 435–450


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PARAMETERISE SIMPLE MODEL FOR TREE WATER USE

2012 Buckley, Turnbull & Adams. Simple models for stomatal conductance derived from a process model: cross-validation against sap flux data. PLANT, CELL & ENVIRONMENT 35 (9) 1647–1662,

WHAT QUESTIONS ARE WE ANSWERING?

› The contribution of mixed species forests to reductions in catchment yield have not been documented - Mixed species are unlikely to incur the same dramatic increase in sapwood area

after a fire

- Yet the morphology and water-use characteristics of regenerating foliage could lead to a reduced yield

- Juvenile leaves are heavily transpiring

- Adult leaves are hydrologically conservative

- …Especially for the period about three years after a fire in which leaf area index approaches that of an unburnt forest.

› How well does tree water use data from regenerating mixed species forest fit our simple model for tree water use in other species of eucalypt?

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DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE PROJECT

› Knowledge of magnitude and (potentially) duration of changes in water yield in catchments vegetated with mixed species forest

› Parameterised simple model of regenerating mixed species forest water use: - Our derived models are driven by irradiance and evaporative demand - Each have two to four parameters that represent sums and products of

biophysical parameters in the process model - Models reproduced a median 83–89% of observed variance in half-hourly and

diurnally averaged sap flux, and performed similarly whether fitted using a random sample of all data or using 1 month of data from spring or autumn.

- Our simple models are an advance in predicting plant water use because their parameters are transparently related to reduced processes and properties, enabling easy accommodation of improved knowledge about how those parameters respond to environmental change and differ among species.

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REFERENCES

› Buckley T.N., Turnbull T.L. & Adams M.A. (2012) Simple models for stomatal conductance derived from a process model: cross-validation against sap flux data. Plant, Cell & Environment 35 (9) 1647–1662,

› Buckley T.N., Turnbull T.L., Pfautsch S. & Adams M.A. (2011) Nocturnal water loss in mature subalpine Eucalyptus delegatensis tall open forests and adjacent E. pauciflora woodlands. Ecology and Evolution, 1, 435-450.

› Buckley T.N., Turnbull T.L., Pfautsch S., Gharun M. & Adams M.A. (2012) Differences in water use between mature and post-fire regrowth stands of subalpine Eucalyptus delegatensis R. Baker. Forest Ecology and Management, (in press).

› Dunn GM and Connor DJ (1993) An analysis of sap flow in mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests of different age. Tree Physiology 13: 321-336.

› Kuczera G (1987) Prediction of water yield reductions following a bushfire in ash-mixed species eucalypt forests. Journal of Hydrology 94: 215-236.

› Nicolle D (2006) A classification and census of regenerative strategies in the eucalypts (Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus—Myrtaceae), with special reference to the obligate seeders. Australian Journal of Botany 54: 391-407.

› Vertessy RA, Benyon RG, O’Sullivan SK, Gribben PR (1995) Relationships between stem diameter, sapwood area, leaf area and transpiration in a young Mountain Ash forest. Tree Physiology 15: 559-567.

› Vertessy RA, Watson FGR, O’Sullivan SK (2001) Factors determining relations between stand age and catchment water balance in Mountain Ash forests. Forest Ecology and Management 143: 13-26.

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Documents

Fires and hydrology of south eastern Australian mixed ... · › Our project “ Fires and hydrology of south eastern Australian mixed-species forests” › History and nature fire